Monday, 16 January 2012

Weekend Updates + Blog Update

This weekend Michigan hosted three of their top 2012 targets, as well as one of their main priorities for the 2013 class.

- Jordan Diamond took his official visit to Michigan this weekend, after already visiting Auburn and Ohio State. He's got Wisconsin and Arkansas to follow, so its a bit early to say where he's going to end up. Before he started taking visits, I thought Wisconsin was in a really good position, so that visit will be very important.

- Sam Grant was the unofficial 2012 visitor this weekend, and he'll be deciding pretty soon. I think it will come down to Michigan and Boston College, although officially I think he's got a top four that also includes Arkansas and Oklahoma. If I had to make a prediction, I'd say he ends up blue, might depend on his in home visits though.

- Armani Reeves finally took his Michigan official, but like Diamond he's still got two more left, so even in January its early days. His cousin Camren Williams seems pretty keen on Ohio State, so the two of them will visit the Buckeyes this week followed by a trip to Penn State at the end of the month.

- 2013 RB Ty Issac was on campus again to check out the Wolverines. It wouldn't surprise me if Michigan was the early leader, but with a prospect as good as he is, many other schools are bound to come in the mix soon.

In other news, Josh Garnett visited Stanford officially this weekend, and is now done with his visits. It's a UM-Stanford race, despite an apparent top 3. It's really close, but I have to give the edge to Stanford, based on their academics, and the fact that they're a lot closer to home. Still, both schools will get one last chance with an in home visit.

Blog Update

I'm pretty satisfied with how far the blog has come over the last year or so, but there is always room for improvement. In evaluating the blog, I thought whats the one thing it really lacks? The answer (to me) was obvious; first hand interviews with recruits. Now, I've spoken to recruits in my time, but being in my final year of university, and living in a different time zone, its not ideal for me to do right now. I'm more suited to the analysis and prediction side of recruiting. So, whats the solution to this problem? Easy, recruit someone to do the interviews for me!

Enter SimplyComplex (Real name: Davon):

"Hello my fellow Michigan fans, my name is Davon and I will be helping out Benji with MGoRecruit as the site's recruiting analyst and reporter from here on out. I've done many interviews with Michigan recruits as well as some 2013 prospects. In the interviews, I use the name SimplyComplex instead of my real name because that's how I contact recruits. I am a regular poster on the recruiting site 24/7 Sports and I've been working with the blog Midnight Maize, which is where I post my interviews. Some of the recruits that I've interviewed are: Allen Gant, Devin Funchess, Kamani Thomas, Colin Goebel, Cameron Burrows, Brogan Roback, Devonte Moore, Ethan Pocic, and Erik Magnuson. I have many more interviews setup and finished, but I wanted to wait and post them exclusively on MGoRecuit. I plan on creating some type of recruiting segments on the blog where you guys can ask me any recruiting questions you might have via liveblog, recruiting roundtable, etc. I'll try to post as often as I can, although my schedule might get hectic sometimes, but I'll try my best. You can follow me on twitter: @SimplyComplexMM. Also, I have a surprise for you guys that will be unveiled on National Signing Day. So make sure to tune in here on February 1st. Finally, if you have any questions for me, post them in the comments and I'll answer all of them as fast as I can. I look forward to working here and providing you guys with the best recruiting content that I have to offer! Have a great day and Go Blue!"

Welcome Davon!

Sometime today I'll enable him to start posting on the site, so look out for his content in the future! As for me, I have exams starting this week, and ending next Wednesday (25th Jan), which is why I haven't posted much over the last few days. I'll be back with vengeance for the run up to signing day, which should include much more comment answering, email responses and twitter replies etc, as well as an awesome signing day live blog.

For the record, if Davon's 'surprise' on signing day goes to plan, then it'll definitely be worth your while to be on the site during NSD!

Extra: One final bit of blog news. After my graduation in June, the summer project will be moving the blog to its own site, away from the blogspot format. Hopefully this will make it easier for you guys to post any comments you have, as well as being able to start your own threads in a forum layout. It's early stages, but I've got some friends in web design who will be helping me design it, so thats something to look forward too!

Jer, the first liveblog didn't go to plan as I didn't really know what I was doing with it. I had to receive comments from everyone and then choose which ones to post, which took ages. Next time I'll act as more of a moderator and just let the comments flow, should be a lot better.

That's to bad the first one went badly. Hopefully the next one goes better. Still we all appreciate what you do. The recruiting info in Florida well sucks. Specially when your a Michigan fan. So it is nice to get info on UM football.Go BLUE.

I live in Columbus, Ohio (I know, I know) and I'm a senior in high school. I used to play football until my sophomore year, and I now play basketball. I've been a Michigan fan ever since I can remember. My dream career is to be a Journalist(preferably sports) , or a recruiting analyst.

I have a solid background in writing. I am the editor of my schools newspaper that has won state awards for best newspaper. I've been hearing from journalism schools such as Northwestern, Kent State, Ohio, Syracuse, and Indiana.

I'm not sure if thats exactly what you wanted, but there it is. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask me.

did anyone else here about pipkins? he got a five star today. thats pretty cool. i think hell end up in the espnu 150 when the rankings come out thursday. how high will he be in the espnu 150? even though it doesnt matter about stars